The need to interface between the point of measurement and the measurement device has always been basic to electrical measurements. It is well known that any measurement interface is theoretically imperfect, as there is always distortion of the measurement point data by the measurement interface that results in the measurement device being presented with data to be measured that is not totally accurate.
In many cases this discrepancy does not matter, as the data presented may be accurate enough for the measurement accuracy desired. In other cases, however, the data at the measurement device input may be significantly in error, as is fairly common when making very precise voltage or high frequency measurements.
One common limitation of measurement interfaces such as probes is sensitivity to measurement point offset voltages. In both single-ended and differential probes an offset could cause the input dynamic range to be exceeded or limited which would adversely affect measurement accuracy or resolution. This applies to both active and passive probes, as the passive probe may pass large offsets on to the measurement device and produce similar dynamic range problems in that device.